French Grammar
Possessive Adjectives and Possessive Pronouns Aide Memoire
The following table shows possessive adjectives (my, you, his, her, etc.). The rule to remember for the test is that they must agree in gender and number with the noun (person, place, thing) that they precede.
Subject | Possessive Adjective | English Equivalent |
Je | Mon, ma, mes | My |
Tu | Ton, ta, tes | Your |
Il/Elle/On | Son, sa ses | His/her/its |
Nous | Notre, nos | Our |
Vous | Votre, vos | Your (formal) |
Ils | Leur, leurs | Their |
For instance, voiture is feminine. Even if you are a male, you would say “J’aime ma voiture” meaning “I like my car”. The possessive adjective “ma” is the feminine form of “my” in English because voiture is feminine. Notre, votre, and leur are all masculine and feminine and only change if the noun is plural.
Remember that if the noun is feminine and starts with a vowel or silent h it will have the masculine possessive adjective in front. For instance, Mon aventure (aventure is feminine), ton amie (your female friend), son horloge (his clock—apparently clocks are female).
Possessive pronouns are found in the following chart and almost follow the same gender and plural matching system as seen above with a minor change with votre, notre, and leur which change with an accent (e.g., nôtre vs notre) and le, la, les before them.
Subject | Possessive Pronoun | English Equivalent |
Je | Le mien, la mienne, les miens, les miennes | Mine |
Tu | Le tien, la tienne, les tiens, les tiennes | Yours |
Il/Elle/On | Le sien, la sienne, les siens, les siennes | His/hers/its |
Nous | Le/ La nôtre, les nôtres | Ours |
Vous | Le/La vôtre, les vôtres | Yours (formal) |
Ils | Le/La leur, les leurs | Theirs |
Here is an example: Nos équipes de hockey battent les leurs et leurs équipes de baseball battent les nôtres./ Our hockey teams beat theirs and their baseball teams beat ours. Note how both possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns are used by different here.
Overall, there are usually 1-3 questions on the test where you must be knowledgeable in this area.